Don't Mess With Texas (34 page)

Stretching out, keeping his hand inside her pajama leg, he rested on his shoulder beside her, and studied her face for the slightest sign that she didn’t want this. The tips of his fingers touched the silkiness of her panties and his dick went from hard to rock hard. Running a finger over the top of the soft mound, he sensed the crinkle of hair beneath the smooth fabric of her panties. Lowering his touch, he felt sweet dampness behind the silk.

She moaned and her hips rose to deepen his touch. Deep was good. He pressed his lips to her closed eyes, and slipped his hand beneath the elastic band to touch moist skin.

“You’re wet,” he whispered.

“Feels… good,” she said.

“Just enjoy it.” He kissed the edge of her lips, and slipped his finger inside her tight opening. His dick grew harder, wanting to go where his hand was. But not yet. He wanted her wetter, lost in wanting him.

While his index finger moved in and out, he found the tight little nub and massaged it with his thumb. A light purr escaped her lips, and she tightened her thighs around his hand. “So good.” She started to move against his hand.

“Not so fast.” He moved his thumb from her hot button. “Let’s make it last.”

He started to pull his hand out and she muttered, “Don’t stop.”

“Not stopping. Just getting started.” Panic stirred his chest when recalled he didn’t have all day. He looked at the clock. His gut clenched. Twenty minutes before Nance showed up.

He slid a palm over her breasts. Caught her nipple between his fingers and tightened them. She opened her eyes and he saw the slightest flicker of doubt play in her baby blues.

“You okay with this?” he asked.

Nodding, she reached up and started unbuttoning his shirt from the bottom up. Loosening only one button, she ran her hand across his stomach then shifted lower. She slipped her hands inside his jeans. The tips of her fingers brushed against his aching dick, and it was his turn to hiss. “I think you’re okay with it, too.”

Working on losing the shirt, he smelled her scent on his hand. Unable to resist, he ran his thumb over his lips. When he saw her watching him, he took his finger deeper into his mouth. “You taste good.”

Yanking his shirt off, he unzipped his pants. Then, wanting to see her, all of her—more than he wanted to lose his clothes—he changed directions. “You don’t need this.” He caught her shirt and pulled it over her head. Her breasts jiggled and while the idea of kissing his way down her body occurred to him, his patience—or time—didn’t allow it. He lowered his lips to the round mounds of flesh, and took one tight pink nipple into his mouth. She moaned.

While his lips worked on her breast, he hitched his thumb in the elastic band of her pajama bottoms and
lowered them, panties included. She raised her hips and, in one quick sweep, they were off. Pulling back, leaving her nipple moist and tight, he let himself savor the sight of Nikki, deliciously naked.

“God, you’re beautiful.” He ran a hand over one breast, down her tight abdomen, and to the curve of her waist.

“Ditto,” she whispered, gazing at his torso.

He scooted down a few inches, leaned on one elbow and circled a finger around her tight nipple, still wet from his mouth. Then he touched her slow, easy, memorizing the dips and curves of her upper body. Finally, lowering his hand to the patch of blond hair between her legs, he slipped his finger inside her cleft. Her moan came louder and she tightened her thighs around his hand. He pulled his fingers from her moist center and gently opened her legs. “I like to watch what I’m doing.”

When her thighs relaxed and he saw all that moist pink flesh, his dick slammed against his zipper.

His gaze shifted from her, completely naked on his bed, to the clock. Ten minutes. Not enough time to give her the slow first time kind of sex she deserved, but asking for a rain check was out of the question.

“Condoms are in the bathroom.” He shot off the bed.

Nikki heard him walk out. She couldn’t ever remember being this aroused, this totally not caring if it was right or wrong. “Hurry,” she muttered.

He appeared at the door seconds later, a small foil pack in his hands. She watched him shuck off his pants. His sex, so hard, bounced up and slapped against his abdomen. Swallowing, she realized Tyler hadn’t been joking. There was plenty of Dallas to love.

The mattress bounced with an unexpected canine visitor. Bud dropped down beside her, resting his wrinkly face on his paws and staring at her.

“Down, Bud,” Dallas snapped. The dog must have heard the seriousness in his tone, because he jumped off the bed.

Dallas stretched out beside her. “We have a problem.”

“Problem?” She glanced down at his sex, still standing completely erect.

He laughed. “Not that kind of problem.”

Realizing he’d read her thoughts, she blushed. He kissed her cheek, then her neck. “We’re short on time and I need to know how I can guarantee you’ll be happy. Do I… use my fingers?” He ran a finger down her chest to circle her belly button. “B, use my tongue?” He leaned in and flicked his tongue at the edge of her lips. “Which I’m very good at,” he added. “Or C, do you want me inside you?” He took her hand and wrapped it around him. She gripped the smooth, velvety organ and rubbed her thumb over its moist tip. He moaned and she loved knowing he was enjoying her touch.

“I’ve never been good at multiple choice questions.” She moved her hand up and down his hardness, trying not to think and just act, to lose the embarrassment and replace it with boldness. “Is there not a D choice, all of the above?”

He grinned and caught her hand. “If you keep doing that, you’re going to remove C from the option list.”

“Wouldn’t want to lose option C.” She took the packet from him and ripped it open with her teeth. Then she rolled the thin piece of rubber over him.

As soon as the condom was in place, he rolled her
completely on her back and was on top of her. Keeping his weight on his elbows, he adjusted his legs until things down south lined up. She felt the cool tips of the condom at her center. Closing her eyes, she pressed her head back in the pillow and waited to feel him enter her.

“No. Open those baby blues. I want to see you when I first enter you.”

She did as requested and he pushed inside. Slow, easy. Even wet with want, his fit was tight, hitting nerve endings she didn’t know she had. Her breath caught.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice strained as he slowly pushed inside.

“Yeah.” She managed to say, but she was better than okay. A sense of rightness filled her chest with every slow and measured in-and-out stroke. So right she knew it had to be wrong. Emotion swelled in her chest. Emotion she didn’t want to feel. But the tight pleasure building between her legs chased away all negative thoughts.

She wanted this.

“Damn, you feel good.” He dropped his forehead against hers, his gaze staying on her eyes, as his strokes became harder, deeper.

She raised her hips to meet his and the sweet ache intensified. The pace increased, and she heard a rumble come from his throat. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and his next thrust brought him deeper inside her, sending the pleasure higher. No awkward movements, they moved together like dancers who knew each other’s exact steps. Pushing toward something wonderful, something blissful.

“I can’t last much longer,” he growled.

He didn’t have to. Pleasure exploded inside her and her
entire body shook with sweet spasms of release. And with it came clarity. This was such a huge freaking mistake. His words from earlier rang in her head.
I’m not asking for forever
.

What was he asking for?

She’d played with fire and she hadn’t just gotten singed. She was burnt. Burnt to a crisp.

He gasped, then rolled to the side, taking her with him. Neither moved for several seconds and then he put a hand on each side of her face and brought her lips to his. “That was—”

“A mistake,” she finished. And instantly, for a thousand reasons, she wished she could take it back. And yet she meant it. She closed her eyes tight and vowed not to cry.

“No. Hell, no. Look at me, Nikki.”

She opened her eyes.

“Why was this a mistake?”

Because I must still believe in forever
.

She stared into his eyes. Because she was a smidgen away from falling in love with a guy who didn’t want forever. “Because sex makes me ravenous and there’s nothing to eat.”

He laughed, and relief flashed in his eyes. “Would a chocolate-covered doughnut help?”

She forced herself to smile and lie. “Perfect.”

Less than an hour later, Dallas was still reeling and almost giddy from the best damn sex he’d ever had. With a very nervous Nance at his side, he walked into the interview room of the Miller Police Department. His brother, sitting at the table, closed a file and stood up.

Dallas made the introductions. Tony, in complete cop mode, motioned for them to sit, and Dallas found his mood changing.

“Thanks for coming, Mr. Nance,” Tony said.

“Your brother told me you were on my side,” Nance said.

“Actually, I’m on the side of the law.”

Nance looked at Dallas. “But the law thinks I’m guilty.”

“Are you?” Tony asked.

“I haven’t done shit,” Nance said, his tone edgy, but honest. “I went for a jog at a park a few months ago, and the next thing I know I’m being slammed against the hood of a police car and told I robbed a store. And now you’re trying to pin a murder on me.”

“I just read your file.” Tony tapped the folder. “Seems like your brothers have accumulated quite a rap sheet. Into gangs and everything. You gonna tell me you didn’t get pulled into it?”

Dallas, seeing panic fill the kid’s eyes, clenched his jaw to keep from telling Tony to back off. But down deep, Dallas knew his brother was doing his job, and today’s meeting was intended to help.

“They’re my half brothers,” Nance said. “Ten years older than me. I was raised by my grandmother. But yeah, they tried to get me to follow in their footsteps, telling me I could have money and girls, but I didn’t do it. I kept myself clean, sold ice cream at Baskin-Robbins and worked at a friggin’ feed store, graduated and everything, and for what? To get accused of this shit anyway? And now ’cause of this, I lost my job. I got no money, no job, no girl, and I’m innocent.”

Tony leaned back in his chair. “So you liked ice cream and loading seed better than girls and money?”

Dallas shot Tony a cold, hard look.

Nance scowled. “I liked it better than breaking my grandmother’s heart. I watched my brothers and my own mama hurt her. I’m all she has left.”

Tony glanced at Dallas, who could tell Nance had passed Tony’s test. “Did my brother tell you why I asked you to come here?”

“You want to see if I had signs of being in a fight.”

“Have you been in a fight, or injured in any way?”

“No.”

“Will you consent to be checked by our CSU team? They’ll want to take pictures and do a blood test to check your blood type.”

“Will this clear my name?”

“If you don’t have any signs of a struggle, it will help clear you of being involved with my investigation,” Tony said. “And since the MOs are similar in both cases, it might help.”

Nance looked at Dallas, who nodded. Nance nodded, too. “If your brother says to do it, I’ll do it.”

When CSU came in to do the search for open wounds and photos, Dallas and Tony stepped into the hall. Dallas leaned against the wall. “You talked to Detective Shane yet?”

“Not yet.” Tony sounded frustrated. “I wanted to see how things here went first.” He paused. “Did you ever catch up with Nikki Hunt?”

“Yeah.” Dallas smiled when he remembered how she’d looked naked on his bed. Then, reminding himself to focus, he asked, “Did you get the court records on her divorce?”

“I have Clark on it now. She was telling the truth about her computer.”

“I didn’t doubt it.” Dallas collected the mental list of questions he had to ask Tony. “Did you check into Leon’s phone records to see who he was talking to?”

“The last three calls late that evening were to and from his work. Unfortunately, CSU tells me the phone system’s not cataloged, so we can’t identify an extension in an office because everything goes out from one trunk line, and it’s not labeled.”

“So find out who the hell was in the office,” Dallas said.

“I already have. One of the lawyers admits to speaking with Jack twice to discuss a case he was assisting him on.”

“Who was it?”

Tony shook his head.

“Is it Andrew Brian?”

“Let me handle this,” Tony said.

Which meant it was Brian. Dallas suddenly realized what Tony had said. “You said there were three calls, and this person admits to speaking to him twice?”

“I can count. I’m checking into it, okay?” Tony let go of a sigh. “Look, I know this is important to you. I’m doing everything I can.”

Dallas heard the sincerity in his brother’s voice.

“So… how is Nikki holding up?” Tony asked.